Palm's first Treo with WCDMA 3G data, first with stereo Bluetooth, and first with an internal antenna. Other features of this PDA phone are similar to other recent Treos, such as Windows Mobile 5, QWERTY keyboard, 1.3 megapixel camera, miniSD memory card slot, and voice control.
Design and Ergonomics
The Treo 750, like the Palm OS Treo 680 recently released by Cingular and Palm, is most recognizably a Treo but it sports a casing re-design that makes it look and feel smaller (more so than it is), weighs 1 ounce less than the Treo 650 and most importantly removes the large stubby antenna found on the Treo 650, Treo 700w and 700wx. Palm tells us that the Treo 750v ("v" stands for Vodafone) was designed to suit Europeans' higher esthetic, and now we in the US can enjoy a bit of Palm's version of high style.
Like all Treos, the 750 feels wonderful in hand, with curves and mass that make you think Palm took a mold of an average sized hand and used that as a starting point for the Treo's casing. Though not miraculously thin like the 0.46" Samsung BlackJack (technology isn't up to fitting the full Pocket PC edition hardware into wafer-thin phones), the 0.8" Treo actually feels more pleasant in hand with no thin, rectilinear edges poking at finger and palm nerves. Clearly though, your pocket will favor the thinner BlackJack, even if your hand does not. The Treo looks and feels solid and well made.
The keyboard is largely unchanged from the Treo 700 line with similar key size, key travel and tactile feedback. The backlit keys measure 9mm wide x 10mm tall and are predominantly black with the number keys in silver for easy dialing. The numbers share keys with letters, so you'll need to hit the Fn key to enter numbers, but the Fn key is sticky (just press it once, you need not hold it down while pressing the desired number key) and with a double-tap of the Fn key you can turn num lock on (the same is true of the shift key). Though the keyboard isn't as roomy as the Cingular 8525's and not up to the venerable BlackBerry 8700's, it is quite usable. The Samsung BlackJack's keys are more widely spaced which gives you more room to type but requires more thumb movement (a matter of personal preference). We had no issues with the keyboard layout other than the colon (:) which has no place on the keyboard. Instead you'll need to press the Alt key, then select it as the first item in a pop-up list of characters and symbols.
The Treo's soft-touch finish (something along the lines of the BlackJack and T-Mobile Dash anti-slip coating) helps keep the Treo in hand. Given how easy it is to let a slick and weighty Treo 700 slip from the hand, we're thrilled with the new surface texture. The Treo is navy blue with a silver display bezel and brushed-metal looking side grips (the Treo is actually made of plastic). With a bit of industrial legedemain, Palm managed to hide the single LED (there is no window in the silver bezel). You won't know it's there until it lights to indicate charging status. Those who despise flashing LEDs indicating phone service and Bluetooth status will be happy to know that the Treo flashes for neither. However, it also doesn't flash to indicate alarms and appointment reminders that have gone off, so you'll need to turn the Treo on and look at the screen to see if you've missed any alarms. Those who hate toothpick-thin, telescoping styli will love the Treo's ample one-piece stylus.
The Treo has Windows Start Menu and OK buttons surrounding the d-pad to improve one-handed operation, but no jog wheel. The call send and end buttons are in standard locations and the device has the usual Windows Mobile softkeys just below the display. On the left side you'll find volume up and down keys along with a user-assignable button that's assigned to the camera by default. A large IR window and the door covering the miniSD slot are on the PDA's right side and the sync and charge ports are on the bottom edge. The ringer on/off slider and the stylus are located up top. The camera lens, self portrait mirror and speakerphone are on the back and the battery lives under a door on the rear. The SIM slot is located under the battery and the soft reset hole in under the miniSD cover. If you must soft reset the Treo, you'll need to remove and re-insert the battery.
Phone Features, Data and Reception
The Treo 750 is a world traveler with a GSM radio that will work anywhere in the world GSM service is available. The quad band GSM radio works on the 850/900/1800/1900MHz bands and handles GSM, GPRS and EDGE. The Treo's 3G radio works on the US and European bands (850/1900/2100MHz) and supports UMTS for data rather than the faster HSDPA standard. UMTS tops out at 384k, though you may see faster results when using Cingular's proxy (hardcoded into the registry for IE) in strong service areas such as ours. Palm states that they'll release an upgrade in Q1 2007 that will move the Treo 750 to HSDPA which means speeds from 600-1,000k in strong Cingular 3G coverage areas with a theoretical max of 1.8 Mbps (which you'll never get on a PDA). Until then, two utilities developed for non-HSDPA enabled HTC Hermes devices (not all had HSDPA enabled because they were sold into UMTS-only countries) work to enable HSDPA on the Treo 750. We installed them and are seeing an average of 950k on DSL Reports mobile speed test. For those who don't wish to install these two small programs (SetHSPDA v2 and fit4cat Hermes), UMTS speeds hovering around 400k are pretty pleasant, being 3 to 4 times faster than EDGE and similar to Verizon and Sprint's EVDO speeds on smartphones in our area.
Phone Features, Data and Reception
The Treo 750 is a world traveler with a GSM radio that will work anywhere in the world GSM service is available. The quad band GSM radio works on the 850/900/1800/1900MHz bands and handles GSM, GPRS and EDGE. The Treo's 3G radio works on the US and European bands (850/1900/2100MHz) and supports UMTS for data rather than the faster HSDPA standard. UMTS tops out at 384k, though you may see faster results when using Cingular's proxy (hardcoded into the registry for IE) in strong service areas such as ours. Palm states that they'll release an upgrade in Q1 2007 that will move the Treo 750 to HSDPA which means speeds from 600-1,000k in strong Cingular 3G coverage areas with a theoretical max of 1.8 Mbps (which you'll never get on a PDA). Until then, two utilities developed for non-HSDPA enabled HTC Hermes devices (not all had HSDPA enabled because they were sold into UMTS-only countries) work to enable HSDPA on the Treo 750. We installed them and are seeing an average of 950k on DSL Reports mobile speed test. For those who don't wish to install these two small programs (SetHSPDA v2 and fit4cat Hermes), UMTS speeds hovering around 400k are pretty pleasant, being 3 to 4 times faster than EDGE and similar to Verizon and Sprint's EVDO speeds on smartphones in our area.
For Internet-related tasks, the Treo 750 has mobile versions of IE and Outlook. Outlook supports multiple email accounts, POP and IMAP protocols, various kinds of authentication and MS Direct Push email thanks to AKU 3.2 (MS Exchange Server 2003 SP2 required). It also ships with a link to get Good Mobile Messaging and you can install 3rd party Windows Mobile compatible browsers such as Opera. You won't be able to install the free Java-based Opera mini unless you download and install a Java VM since the Treo ships with none. We installed a Java VM and were off and running with Google Maps and other Java apps.
The killer application is of course the phone, and the Treo 750 doesn't disappoint. While audio quality wasn't among the best on prior Treo models, the 750 has excellent call quality. Incoming and outgoing voice sound like a land line (in part due to 3G's superior voice codecs) and volume is more than adequate unless you're making a call from the Super Bowl. Reception on 3G is good, and is very similar to the Cingular 8525 (the BlackJack is the ultimate king of RF for 3G at the moment). Reception in GSM (non-3G) areas in very good. The Treo has a rear-firing speakerphone and a 2.5mm stereo headset jack (not proprietary thank goodness) and comes with a stereo earbud headset with inline mic.
Horsepower and Performance
We've seen Samsung's ARM/XScale compatible processors in quite a few PDA phones in the past year, and Palm has joined the ranks with the Treo 750's 300MHz Samsung SC32442A CPU. We love the strong performance combined with power-savings features of Samsung's mobile processors-- two things that don't usually go together in the world of CPUs. By Windows Mobile 5 standards the Treo 750 is very responsive (likely Palm is using some intelligent caching) with no undo lag opening menus and applications. It opens a 500 contact database quickly and has no problem scrolling quickly. 240 x 240 games aren't abundant, but those games that do support that resolution ran well. Video playback is also good, but we'll cover that later.
Unlike the first Windows Mobile Treo to market (700w), the Treo 750 has plenty of RAM to run programs-- 64 megs which is standard for Windows Mobile devices. Of that 64 megs, approximately 29 are free after booting and the Treo has 128 megs of flash ROM, of which ~ 60 megs are available for your use as persistent memory that will survive a complete battery drain. For storage expansion the Treo has a miniSD slot (a rarity now that most phones have moved to the annoyingly small MicroSD standard) and can accept cards up to 2 gigs. The slot also supports SDIO and the Treo is compatible with Spectec's miniSD WiFi 802.11b card.
Software
We've already covered some of Palm's customizations and additions, but let's review the standard Windows Mobile software offerings for those who aren't Pocket PC aficionados. All Windows Mobile Pocket PC and Pocket PC Phone Edition devices have touch screens plus handwriting recognition and on-screen keyboards, though you likely won't need the software keyboard and handwriting recognition much thanks to thereof's QWERTY thumb keyboard. They also include Microsoft's Mobile Office suite (view and edit Word and Excel docs, view PowerPoint presentations), Outlook Mobile (and desktop Outlook 2002), Internet Explorer Mobile, Windows Media Player Mobile 10, Terminal Services, Modem Link, Pictures and Videos, Pocket MSN (Hotmail, MSN Messenger), File Explorer, Solitaire, Bubble Breaker, Calculator and support for secure certificates and VPN connections. Outlook on the PDA has calendar, contacts, tasks, notes and email, which you can sync to a Windows desktop running Outlook. Windows Mobile devices sync only to Windows, so Mac users will need to purchase Missing Sync from MarkSpace.
Palm adds their popular threaded SMS application, a wired car kit manager, Keyguard (lock the Treo's buttons with an option to disable the touch screen when in a call), Sounds (an easy way to add ringtones), a Windows desktop Bluetooth plugin, and a Wireless Manager to control the phone and Bluetooth radios. The third party software bundle is quite generous: you get MS Voice Command, Handmark Express, Sprite Backup, Astraware's Dynomite (game), Picsel's PDF viewer and download links for Avvenu and Audible. The Treo 750 is compatible with TeleNav (a subscription navigation service billed by Cingular).
Pro: Snappy performance, 3G (though we'll have to wait for the official upgrade from UMTS to the even faster HSDPA flavor of 3G), excellent usability, great form factor and ever-ready keyboard. We like the new anti-slip surface coating and the lack of an external antenna. Bluetooth is solid and the camera takes decent photos as well as video at 30fps. Kudos to Palm for including MS Voice Command with enhancements to support Bluetooth headsets.
Con: The smaller battery means shorter battery life-- though our Treo 750 outlasts our BlackJack, it doesn't last as long as the Cingular 8525. No WiFi built-in, so you'll need to buy a miniSD WiFi card if you're in need. Though for us, 3G is much more important than WiFi and we find ourselves rarely using WiFi on our 8525. The 240 x 240 resolution display means you'll see a bit less on screen and while most applications support that resolution, you'll find games that don't. We hope Palm's next Windows Mobile Treo has a 320 x 240 landscape display.
Hardware Overview
Processor:
300 MHz Samsung processor
Operating System:
Windows Mobile 5.1 Pocket PC Phone Edition
Display:
240 by 240 pixel LCD
Memory:
128 MB flash memory (60 MB available)
Size and Weight:
4.5 inches long x 2.3 inches wide x 0.8 inches thick; 5.4 ounces
Expansion :
Single miniSD slot
Docking:
Palm Multiconnector
Communication :
Quad-band GSM/EDGE; tri-band UMTS; Bluetooth 1.2
Audio:
2.5mm stereo headset; speakerphone; speaker & mouthpiece for phone
Battery:
1,200 milliamp Lithium Ion rechargable/replacable battery
Input:
QWERTY keyboard; 5-way directional pad
Accessibility
Digital TTY/TDD : Yes
Multiple Languages : Yes
Connectivity
Bluetooth Supported Profiles: DUN, HFP, HSP, OPP, A2DP, AVRC, HID version 1.2
Infrared (IR) :Yes
PC Sync :Yes
USB :Yes
Data & Network
Data-Capable : Yes
Flight Mode : via Wireless Manager application
Packet Data Technology : WCDMA (UMTS) upgradeable to HSDPA / plus EDGE
WAP / Web Browser : Internet Explorer Mobile
Music
Music Player Supported Formats: MP3, WMA Windows Media Player
Photo & Video
Camera Resolution: 1,3 megapixelself-timer, multi-shot funtions / brightness control
Streaming Video : Windows Media Player
Video Capture : Max. Length: available memory. Up to CIF resolution / 3GPP format
Design and Ergonomics
The Treo 750, like the Palm OS Treo 680 recently released by Cingular and Palm, is most recognizably a Treo but it sports a casing re-design that makes it look and feel smaller (more so than it is), weighs 1 ounce less than the Treo 650 and most importantly removes the large stubby antenna found on the Treo 650, Treo 700w and 700wx. Palm tells us that the Treo 750v ("v" stands for Vodafone) was designed to suit Europeans' higher esthetic, and now we in the US can enjoy a bit of Palm's version of high style.
Like all Treos, the 750 feels wonderful in hand, with curves and mass that make you think Palm took a mold of an average sized hand and used that as a starting point for the Treo's casing. Though not miraculously thin like the 0.46" Samsung BlackJack (technology isn't up to fitting the full Pocket PC edition hardware into wafer-thin phones), the 0.8" Treo actually feels more pleasant in hand with no thin, rectilinear edges poking at finger and palm nerves. Clearly though, your pocket will favor the thinner BlackJack, even if your hand does not. The Treo looks and feels solid and well made.
The keyboard is largely unchanged from the Treo 700 line with similar key size, key travel and tactile feedback. The backlit keys measure 9mm wide x 10mm tall and are predominantly black with the number keys in silver for easy dialing. The numbers share keys with letters, so you'll need to hit the Fn key to enter numbers, but the Fn key is sticky (just press it once, you need not hold it down while pressing the desired number key) and with a double-tap of the Fn key you can turn num lock on (the same is true of the shift key). Though the keyboard isn't as roomy as the Cingular 8525's and not up to the venerable BlackBerry 8700's, it is quite usable. The Samsung BlackJack's keys are more widely spaced which gives you more room to type but requires more thumb movement (a matter of personal preference). We had no issues with the keyboard layout other than the colon (:) which has no place on the keyboard. Instead you'll need to press the Alt key, then select it as the first item in a pop-up list of characters and symbols.
The Treo's soft-touch finish (something along the lines of the BlackJack and T-Mobile Dash anti-slip coating) helps keep the Treo in hand. Given how easy it is to let a slick and weighty Treo 700 slip from the hand, we're thrilled with the new surface texture. The Treo is navy blue with a silver display bezel and brushed-metal looking side grips (the Treo is actually made of plastic). With a bit of industrial legedemain, Palm managed to hide the single LED (there is no window in the silver bezel). You won't know it's there until it lights to indicate charging status. Those who despise flashing LEDs indicating phone service and Bluetooth status will be happy to know that the Treo flashes for neither. However, it also doesn't flash to indicate alarms and appointment reminders that have gone off, so you'll need to turn the Treo on and look at the screen to see if you've missed any alarms. Those who hate toothpick-thin, telescoping styli will love the Treo's ample one-piece stylus.
The Treo has Windows Start Menu and OK buttons surrounding the d-pad to improve one-handed operation, but no jog wheel. The call send and end buttons are in standard locations and the device has the usual Windows Mobile softkeys just below the display. On the left side you'll find volume up and down keys along with a user-assignable button that's assigned to the camera by default. A large IR window and the door covering the miniSD slot are on the PDA's right side and the sync and charge ports are on the bottom edge. The ringer on/off slider and the stylus are located up top. The camera lens, self portrait mirror and speakerphone are on the back and the battery lives under a door on the rear. The SIM slot is located under the battery and the soft reset hole in under the miniSD cover. If you must soft reset the Treo, you'll need to remove and re-insert the battery.
Phone Features, Data and Reception
The Treo 750 is a world traveler with a GSM radio that will work anywhere in the world GSM service is available. The quad band GSM radio works on the 850/900/1800/1900MHz bands and handles GSM, GPRS and EDGE. The Treo's 3G radio works on the US and European bands (850/1900/2100MHz) and supports UMTS for data rather than the faster HSDPA standard. UMTS tops out at 384k, though you may see faster results when using Cingular's proxy (hardcoded into the registry for IE) in strong service areas such as ours. Palm states that they'll release an upgrade in Q1 2007 that will move the Treo 750 to HSDPA which means speeds from 600-1,000k in strong Cingular 3G coverage areas with a theoretical max of 1.8 Mbps (which you'll never get on a PDA). Until then, two utilities developed for non-HSDPA enabled HTC Hermes devices (not all had HSDPA enabled because they were sold into UMTS-only countries) work to enable HSDPA on the Treo 750. We installed them and are seeing an average of 950k on DSL Reports mobile speed test. For those who don't wish to install these two small programs (SetHSPDA v2 and fit4cat Hermes), UMTS speeds hovering around 400k are pretty pleasant, being 3 to 4 times faster than EDGE and similar to Verizon and Sprint's EVDO speeds on smartphones in our area.
Phone Features, Data and Reception
The Treo 750 is a world traveler with a GSM radio that will work anywhere in the world GSM service is available. The quad band GSM radio works on the 850/900/1800/1900MHz bands and handles GSM, GPRS and EDGE. The Treo's 3G radio works on the US and European bands (850/1900/2100MHz) and supports UMTS for data rather than the faster HSDPA standard. UMTS tops out at 384k, though you may see faster results when using Cingular's proxy (hardcoded into the registry for IE) in strong service areas such as ours. Palm states that they'll release an upgrade in Q1 2007 that will move the Treo 750 to HSDPA which means speeds from 600-1,000k in strong Cingular 3G coverage areas with a theoretical max of 1.8 Mbps (which you'll never get on a PDA). Until then, two utilities developed for non-HSDPA enabled HTC Hermes devices (not all had HSDPA enabled because they were sold into UMTS-only countries) work to enable HSDPA on the Treo 750. We installed them and are seeing an average of 950k on DSL Reports mobile speed test. For those who don't wish to install these two small programs (SetHSPDA v2 and fit4cat Hermes), UMTS speeds hovering around 400k are pretty pleasant, being 3 to 4 times faster than EDGE and similar to Verizon and Sprint's EVDO speeds on smartphones in our area.
For Internet-related tasks, the Treo 750 has mobile versions of IE and Outlook. Outlook supports multiple email accounts, POP and IMAP protocols, various kinds of authentication and MS Direct Push email thanks to AKU 3.2 (MS Exchange Server 2003 SP2 required). It also ships with a link to get Good Mobile Messaging and you can install 3rd party Windows Mobile compatible browsers such as Opera. You won't be able to install the free Java-based Opera mini unless you download and install a Java VM since the Treo ships with none. We installed a Java VM and were off and running with Google Maps and other Java apps.
The killer application is of course the phone, and the Treo 750 doesn't disappoint. While audio quality wasn't among the best on prior Treo models, the 750 has excellent call quality. Incoming and outgoing voice sound like a land line (in part due to 3G's superior voice codecs) and volume is more than adequate unless you're making a call from the Super Bowl. Reception on 3G is good, and is very similar to the Cingular 8525 (the BlackJack is the ultimate king of RF for 3G at the moment). Reception in GSM (non-3G) areas in very good. The Treo has a rear-firing speakerphone and a 2.5mm stereo headset jack (not proprietary thank goodness) and comes with a stereo earbud headset with inline mic.
Horsepower and Performance
We've seen Samsung's ARM/XScale compatible processors in quite a few PDA phones in the past year, and Palm has joined the ranks with the Treo 750's 300MHz Samsung SC32442A CPU. We love the strong performance combined with power-savings features of Samsung's mobile processors-- two things that don't usually go together in the world of CPUs. By Windows Mobile 5 standards the Treo 750 is very responsive (likely Palm is using some intelligent caching) with no undo lag opening menus and applications. It opens a 500 contact database quickly and has no problem scrolling quickly. 240 x 240 games aren't abundant, but those games that do support that resolution ran well. Video playback is also good, but we'll cover that later.
Unlike the first Windows Mobile Treo to market (700w), the Treo 750 has plenty of RAM to run programs-- 64 megs which is standard for Windows Mobile devices. Of that 64 megs, approximately 29 are free after booting and the Treo has 128 megs of flash ROM, of which ~ 60 megs are available for your use as persistent memory that will survive a complete battery drain. For storage expansion the Treo has a miniSD slot (a rarity now that most phones have moved to the annoyingly small MicroSD standard) and can accept cards up to 2 gigs. The slot also supports SDIO and the Treo is compatible with Spectec's miniSD WiFi 802.11b card.
Software
We've already covered some of Palm's customizations and additions, but let's review the standard Windows Mobile software offerings for those who aren't Pocket PC aficionados. All Windows Mobile Pocket PC and Pocket PC Phone Edition devices have touch screens plus handwriting recognition and on-screen keyboards, though you likely won't need the software keyboard and handwriting recognition much thanks to thereof's QWERTY thumb keyboard. They also include Microsoft's Mobile Office suite (view and edit Word and Excel docs, view PowerPoint presentations), Outlook Mobile (and desktop Outlook 2002), Internet Explorer Mobile, Windows Media Player Mobile 10, Terminal Services, Modem Link, Pictures and Videos, Pocket MSN (Hotmail, MSN Messenger), File Explorer, Solitaire, Bubble Breaker, Calculator and support for secure certificates and VPN connections. Outlook on the PDA has calendar, contacts, tasks, notes and email, which you can sync to a Windows desktop running Outlook. Windows Mobile devices sync only to Windows, so Mac users will need to purchase Missing Sync from MarkSpace.
Palm adds their popular threaded SMS application, a wired car kit manager, Keyguard (lock the Treo's buttons with an option to disable the touch screen when in a call), Sounds (an easy way to add ringtones), a Windows desktop Bluetooth plugin, and a Wireless Manager to control the phone and Bluetooth radios. The third party software bundle is quite generous: you get MS Voice Command, Handmark Express, Sprite Backup, Astraware's Dynomite (game), Picsel's PDF viewer and download links for Avvenu and Audible. The Treo 750 is compatible with TeleNav (a subscription navigation service billed by Cingular).
Pro: Snappy performance, 3G (though we'll have to wait for the official upgrade from UMTS to the even faster HSDPA flavor of 3G), excellent usability, great form factor and ever-ready keyboard. We like the new anti-slip surface coating and the lack of an external antenna. Bluetooth is solid and the camera takes decent photos as well as video at 30fps. Kudos to Palm for including MS Voice Command with enhancements to support Bluetooth headsets.
Con: The smaller battery means shorter battery life-- though our Treo 750 outlasts our BlackJack, it doesn't last as long as the Cingular 8525. No WiFi built-in, so you'll need to buy a miniSD WiFi card if you're in need. Though for us, 3G is much more important than WiFi and we find ourselves rarely using WiFi on our 8525. The 240 x 240 resolution display means you'll see a bit less on screen and while most applications support that resolution, you'll find games that don't. We hope Palm's next Windows Mobile Treo has a 320 x 240 landscape display.
Hardware Overview
Processor:
300 MHz Samsung processor
Operating System:
Windows Mobile 5.1 Pocket PC Phone Edition
Display:
240 by 240 pixel LCD
Memory:
128 MB flash memory (60 MB available)
Size and Weight:
4.5 inches long x 2.3 inches wide x 0.8 inches thick; 5.4 ounces
Expansion :
Single miniSD slot
Docking:
Palm Multiconnector
Communication :
Quad-band GSM/EDGE; tri-band UMTS; Bluetooth 1.2
Audio:
2.5mm stereo headset; speakerphone; speaker & mouthpiece for phone
Battery:
1,200 milliamp Lithium Ion rechargable/replacable battery
Input:
QWERTY keyboard; 5-way directional pad
Accessibility
Digital TTY/TDD : Yes
Multiple Languages : Yes
Connectivity
Bluetooth Supported Profiles: DUN, HFP, HSP, OPP, A2DP, AVRC, HID version 1.2
Infrared (IR) :Yes
PC Sync :Yes
USB :Yes
Data & Network
Data-Capable : Yes
Flight Mode : via Wireless Manager application
Packet Data Technology : WCDMA (UMTS) upgradeable to HSDPA / plus EDGE
WAP / Web Browser : Internet Explorer Mobile
Music
Music Player Supported Formats: MP3, WMA Windows Media Player
Photo & Video
Camera Resolution: 1,3 megapixelself-timer, multi-shot funtions / brightness control
Streaming Video : Windows Media Player
Video Capture : Max. Length: available memory. Up to CIF resolution / 3GPP format
